History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 920: Expanding Territory (Part )
After receiving the letter, Xu Keqiong immediately abandoned Mengzhou, led his troops to Guizhou, and joined forces with Ma Xiyin to attack Peng Yanhui. Peng Yanhui was defeated and fled to Hengshan.

When the Southern Han troops approached the city of Guizhou, the Chu troops inside the city turned against each other and killed each other, thus completely depleting their already stretched armed forces.

Therefore, the Southern Han first took over Mengzhou, which was abandoned by Xu Keqiong, and then plundered the Lingnan region controlled by Southern Chu. Liu Hongxi wrote a letter to Ma Xiyin, saying that the Southern Tang had occupied Tanzhou and would soon send people to take over Guizhou. Our two countries are uncle-nephew countries, how can I sit back and do nothing? I have already dispatched a large army to the north, both by land and sea, to help you restore your country. After the success, I promise to let you be the governor and retain your wealth and honor.

There were only three options before Ma Xiyin: obey the surrender order of Southern Chu (Tanzhou) and offer Guizhou to Southern Tang, allowing Southern Tang to slaughter him; refuse to surrender to Southern Tang and use the power of Southern Han to drive Southern Tang away, which would be equivalent to surrendering to Southern Han and allowing Southern Han to slaughter him; neither surrender to Tang nor to Han, let the flag of Chu fly over Guizhou, and retain a base for the Ma family. In this way, he would need to fight alone, resist Southern Tang in the north and defend against Southern Han in the south.

Ma Xiyin and Xu Keqiong were very entangled, hesitant and indecisive, and only did two things every day: drinking and crying. He cried when he was drunk, and drank again when he woke up. A few days later, Ma Xiyin found his staff and said that he planned to surrender to the Southern Han. The staff Pan Xuangui immediately dissuaded him.

Surrendering to the Tang Dynasty means the destruction of the country, and surrendering to the Han Dynasty also means the destruction of the country. It's all death anyway, so why does it matter who kills you?
"Do you mean that we should accept Tanzhou's surrender order?"

"Young Master, why are you so determined to destroy your father and brother's foundation?"

"You mean to fight to the bitter end and revive the Chu?"

"What about foolish dreams?"

……

So Ma Xiyin fell into confusion again and continued to drink and cry.

Southern Han, which had not received a response from Ma Xiyin, launched an attack on Guizhou. Ma Xiyin and Xu Keqiong broke out of the siege, abandoned the city and fled to Quanzhou.

The Southern Han took over Guizhou, and then, under the leadership of the chief eunuch Wu Huai'en, they seized Yi, Lian, Wu, Yan, Fu, Zhao, Liu, Gong, Xiang and other states in one fell swoop, occupying the entire Lingnan region.

In December, Liu Hongxi recalled Wu Huai'en and sent another eunuch chief, Pan Chongche, to replace Wu Huai'en as the commander-in-chief and continue to expand northward. Pan Chongche was known as the first general of the Southern Han Dynasty, and will be described in detail later.

Pan Chongche attacked Chenzhou, and Bian Hao of Southern Tang sent troops to rescue.

Although Southern Tang had the power to destroy Chu, Li Jing was eager to squeeze the blood out of Southern Chu at that time. He planned to drain the pond and fish, scrape the land three feet, and transport all the plundered wealth to Southern Tang. However, ordinary soldiers did not benefit from it, so Sun Lang and Cao Jin launched a mutiny in Tanzhou and surrendered to Wang Kui of Langzhou. As the saying goes, a cannon shot is worth a thousand taels of gold. The Southern Tang soldiers who did not receive rewards complained and were unwilling to come to Lingnan as cannon fodder. Their morale was low and their combat effectiveness was sharply reduced.

In contrast, the Southern Han conquered cities along the way and their morale was high. When the two armies fought, the Southern Tang was badly defeated.

Pan Chongche ordered that all Southern Tang captives have one arm cut off and then be released, so that these one-armed captive soldiers could pass on terror to everyone.

Li Jing of Southern Tang planned to stop the war and cease fire along the actual control line between the two sides, and divide Southern Chu with Wang Kui of Langzhou and Liu Hongxi of Southern Han. However, Feng Yansi of the "Four Evils and Five Demons" group firmly opposed it. After finally destroying Southern Chu, why should he share it with others? Under the instigation of Feng Yansi, Li Jing sent more troops to Langzhou in the north and Guizhou in the south, and continued to fight on two fronts irrationally.

In April 952, the Southern Tang sent Hou Xun and Zhang Luan to lead an army to counterattack Guizhou. The Southern Han had set up an ambush in the mountains and forests in advance. The Southern Tang had come from afar and was ambushed before it could even catch its breath, and returned in defeat.

The successive defeats on the battlefield forced the Southern Tang to withdraw from the Hunan battlefield, and the Southern Han would face its next competitor - Wang Kui of Langzhou.

After Wang Kui of Langzhou drove away Bian Hao and took control of Tanzhou, he colluded with the Xidong Barbarians in December and led an army of 12 to attack Chenzhou. Han commander Pan Chongche climbed a high place and saw that although Wang Kui had a large number of troops, they were mixed with many Barbarian mercenaries, and the ranks were scattered and the orders were inconsistent. So he smiled and said to the generals: "They are just a group of rabble, and they can be captured with one blow."

At Pan Chongche's command, the Han army took advantage of their leisure time to attack Wang Kui. As expected, the mercenaries would not fight for Wang Kui. When they saw the fierce attack of the enemy, they immediately retreated. The Hunan soldiers, who were already disorganized, were instantly thrown into disarray and collapsed at the first blow, with corpses lying for 80 miles.

In the Battle of Chenzhou, Wang Kui barely escaped with his life, but suffered extremely heavy losses.

Wang Kui's failure to seize Guizhou marked the end of the first stage of his "restoration movement", and he now controlled two-thirds of Southern Chu. The defeat in Guizhou dealt a heavy blow to his direct lineage, and thus he lost his absolute voice in the "Ten Brothers" group. The top priority was to consolidate his position in the group and digest the two-thirds of Southern Chu that he had already obtained. The story of the internal struggles among the "Ten Brothers" and Zhou Xingfeng's eventual rise to power has been detailed in the previous article.

Let’s talk about Southern Han again. The successive victories greatly boosted the morale of Southern Han. After defeating Wang Kui, Pan Chongche took a short rest and then divided his troops into two groups and marched north the next month (January 953) to occupy the three states of Quan, Dao and Yong.

In this year, Liu Hongxi announced a general amnesty and made his five sons kings.

Standing on the wind, even pigs can fly. The happy events of Southern Han did not end there. In 954, Wu Changwen of Jiaozhou wrote a memorial to Liu Hongxi, expressing his loyalty to Southern Han.

After the Battle of Bach Dang River in 938, Wu Quan overthrew Jiao Gongxian and took control of Jiaozhou, Annan and other places, which is today's northern Vietnam. In 944, Wu Quan died of illness, and then his brother-in-law Yang Sange (son of Yang Tingyi, who was killed by Jiao Gongxian) became regent. Wu Quan's eldest son Wu Changji fled for fear of disaster. Yang Sange sent people to hunt down Wu Changji and used Wu Quan's second son Wu Changwen as a puppet. In 950, Wu Changwen overthrew his uncle Yang Sange and seized control of Jiaozhou and Annan.

Wu Changwen welcomed his brother back, and the two brothers ruled together, but soon a rift developed between the two brothers. In 954, Wu Changji died, and Wu Changwen submitted to the Southern Han and requested to be canonized.

Liu Hongxi was very happy. He was able to return the Annan region in the south to the embrace of the motherland after robbing money, grain and territory in the north. He quickly sent Li Yu, the imperial secretary, to Jiaozhou to confer the title. When Li Yu was halfway there, Wu Changwen suddenly sent someone to stop him, saying that there were many bandits ahead and it was extremely dangerous, so he should not come. Li Yu was afraid and dared not go forward, so he returned to Guangzhou obediently. From then on, this land never returned to the embrace of the motherland.

Some historical books also write Wu Changwen as Wu Changjun; other historical books say that Liu Hongxi appointed Wu Changwen as "Jiedushi of Jinghai Army in Jiaozhou and Protector of Annan" and asked Li Yu to "call him with a banner and a flag". In short, Wu Changwen was respectful at first but arrogant later, and broke the agreement halfway. Liu Hongxi also focused his main energy on the Central Plains in the north and had no time to look south, so the Central Plains gradually lost control of Jiaozhou and Annan.

【Smooth delivery】

Everything has its limits. Liu Hongxi, this rare talent, died suddenly at the peak of his career.

Taking advantage of the civil unrest in Southern Chu, Southern Han occupied a large amount of land in Southern Chu, bringing the territory of Southern Han to its historical peak. This made Liu Hongxi complacent, arrogant and stubborn. If God wants to destroy a person, he must first make him crazy. Liu Hongxi went crazy.

In 956, the Later Zhou sent an envoy to the Southern Han for a friendly visit. Liu Hongxi boasted to the envoy of the Later Zhou about the power and wealth of the Southern Han, and asked the officials in charge of receiving the envoy to give the Later Zhou a small gift - a beautiful jasmine flower. The envoy of the Later Zhou did not know what jasmine was, so he asked the name of the flower. Seeing that the envoy of a great country was so ignorant, Liu Hongxi laughed and said that it was called "Little Southern Power".

Later, after the Song Dynasty conquered the Southern Han, the ruler and his ministers were captured and taken to Bianzhou. They did not recognize the peony flowers at the banquet, so the officials of the Song Dynasty told them that this was called "Great Northern Victory" and it meant tit for tat.

In 957, Chai Rong of the Later Zhou Dynasty won a brilliant victory on the battlefield of Huainan, and the Southern Tang Dynasty was in danger of extinction. Liu Hongxi of the Southern Han Dynasty finally felt the pressure and showed his worry, so he sent people to the Later Zhou Dynasty to pay tribute and express his willingness to become a vassal of the Later Zhou Dynasty.

However, Hunan refused his request to borrow the road. Liu Hongxi was so angry that he said: "After I die, I don't care about the floods!"

In Hunan, Wang Kui had just been defeated by Pan Shusi, and Zhou Xingfeng was the only one in power. It is unknown whether Zhou Xingfeng rejected the Southern Han or the envoys were not allowed to go because of the turbulent situation. The history books only said that the tribute envoys of the Southern Han were blocked by Hunan. It is said that Liu Hongxi did not completely lie down and give up. He ordered to seize the time to build giant ships and develop armaments in preparation for a big fight with the Later Zhou in the future.

As the saying goes, "A red flower becomes red, a black flower becomes black". After hanging out with "experts" for a long time, Liu Hongxi also learned divination. It is said that one day, Liu Hongxi was observing the stars at night and saw a lunar eclipse between the stars of Cowherd and Weaver Girl. So he picked up the astrology book and flipped through it. After reading for a while, he suddenly threw the book to the ground, sighed, and said to himself: "Since ancient times, everyone has to die. Well, let it be."

From then on, Liu Hongxi indulged in drinking and womanizing all night long.

The following year, in 958 AD, it was a spring. Liu Hongxi calculated with his fingers and drew a circle in the north of Guangzhou. He planned it as an imperial mausoleum project. Liu Hongxi also went to the site in person to inspect the progress of the project.

With the support of the emperor himself, the workers worked day and night, worked overtime to meet the deadline, and finally completed the project in August.

"Here, here are the keys. Welcome to the owner."

Liu Hongxi kept his word and died on time just after the house handover and acceptance work was completed. He was 39 years old and left us prematurely.

Historical books generally have negative evaluations of Liu Hongxi. Although he took advantage of the situation to expand the territory of Southern Han to its peak, he was still unable to reverse the situation of receiving so many negative reviews.

There are two poems that can summarize Comrade Liu Hongxi's life:
"Bend the bow at the palace steps, beasts surrender, feast in the middle of the night and shake the silver jar.

There is no need for a rooster to announce the night watch, as there are palace maids waiting for the dawn."

another:
"The auspicious sun fills the Green Palace, and in the Cloud-lit Stone Chamber we pay homage to the Immortal.

The king has just acquired the art of elixir, and the affairs of state are entirely dependent on the female attendant. "

(End of this chapter)